Space Center Houston

The room where humanity's Moon landing was directed from Earth, preserved down to the ashtrays and coffee cups of 1969, sits at the heart of the visitor center that lets the public walk through NASA's human spaceflight program.

NASA established the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston in 1961 to serve as the hub for astronaut training, mission planning, and flight control for the nation's growing human spaceflight program. Its Mission Control Center, known as Building 30, began directing missions in 1965 and went on to guide the Gemini and Apollo programs from the ground, including the tense final descent of Apollo 11 to the lunar surface in 1969 and the dramatic rescue of the crippled Apollo 13 mission in 1970.

In 1973, the center was renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center to honor the Texan president who had championed the space program throughout his career, and its historic Mission Control room was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. Space Center Houston opened in 1992 as the facility's dedicated public visitor center, giving ordinary visitors access to exhibits, astronaut training areas, and a tram tour of the working campus.

In 2019, after a painstaking restoration that returned the room to its exact 1969 appearance down to period furniture and consoles, the historic Mission Control room reopened for public tours. The center also displays one of only three surviving Saturn V rockets in the world, while actual spacecraft launches continue to take place hundreds of miles away at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.